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How precious are Your thoughts to me, O LORD ... how vast is the sum of them!

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Thaw: A Fairytale Retelling

It’s
my pleasure today to participate in a book launch for E. Kaiser
Writes’ new series, Thaw. You might remember that these
stories (or rather, one continuous story) made it to my top-fifteen
list in last week’s post. Yesterday, an interview with Elizabeth
Kaiser was posted on Homeschooled Authors, so if you want to learn
more about this wonderful series and its author, check it out!

Okay,
I can’t wait anymore. Let’s move on to the stories themselves and
their covers (which are illustrated by the author herself and
designed by her and her sister!)!

Thaw started with the idea to
combine the fairytale “Snow Maiden” with Anderson’s “Snow
Queen” and form a retelling that would be more satisfying than
Disney’s recent version. (While they did some things very well, a
lot of aspects fell through the cracks.) Add European history and a
dollop of “what if then...?” to the mixture, and out comes a
wintery beginning to a series that will span 50 years and at least 16
people’s stories.

The first three books are Winter’s
Child (with most of the “Snow Maiden” elements); Winter
Queen (the part that will be most recognizable, since it was hard
to do anything too different there and still lead into the next
book); and Prince of Demargen, which resolves the problem of
the Devil’s Mirror. But the entire story arc will be completed in
Reindeer King, which is intended for release in early 2015.

Winter’s Child opens
the curtain on the kingdom of Noran and tells the story of a
long-awaited miracle baby born to the royal couple. Princess Ilise is
gifted with special powers, but she must learn how to use them—or
harm the ones she loves.

Winter Queen
shows Ilise becoming queen and striving to master her gift and be the
worthy ruler she longs to be. Meanwhile, her impetuous sister Girta
falls in love with Prince Hess, youngest son of the neighboring
kingdom whose ambitions may prove to be his downfall. There is no
easy path for any of the three, however.

Prince of Demargen picks
up the story of Hess and follows him as he must deal with the
repercussions of what happened in the preceding book.

Also
knitting these three books together are a bevy of intriguing side
characters, including Kai the woodsman, Halvor the snowman, the
Winter Angel, and the suspicious Earl of Esser!

~*~

I
had the privilege of editing these stories and providing feedback, so
you could say I was sort of involved in their “growing up.”
Imagine if you got to comment in one of your favorite authors’
books and tell him/her what you are thinking during a particularly
striking passage—if you could say something
like, “I love that description!” or “I am dying to know if
she’ll ever like him again!” or “I’m almost crying here.”
Wouldn’t that be so much fun? That’s what it was like for
me. That’s one of the things I enjoy about editing and beta-reading
… it’s like being an aunt that can be more involved in the
raising of a story (without having ultimate responsibility!) than
just a reader after the book is published. You even get a small say
in how the story is reared to adulthood, just like an aunt who gets
to babysit for a while or is asked for advice.

Enough
about the analogy … on to (some of) my favorite quotes and
descriptive passages!

That
is how you must learn to be with life. Be the rock, Ilise, not the
ice. … Let life happen, but not control you.

Winter’s
Child

Then
her hands danced outward, playing faster than an orchestra leader’s
baton. A row of swans took position along the rail, snowy bodies,
glistening wings. Her eyes glowed as she sent them off, and they fell
into perfect formation, dipping and rising at her command.

This
was fun.

No
one could be lonesome while doing this.

She
brought the swans back, and they lined up perfectly on the rail,
their snowy faces expressionless, their glassy beaks soundless. …

She
flicked her fingers again and a sleigh appeared, formed of knitted
snowflakes. She traced a finger to each swan and snowy filaments
formed a harness on each fowl. The swans rearranged themselves to
accommodate this new strategy, and then she lifted them off and into
the air again.

They
rose upward with the beat of icy wings, and the snowflake sleigh
swooped up close on their tails. It sailed through the sky like a
cloud, following exactly where the swans dipped and dived to.

Winter’s
Child

(Just
about every passage dealing with the ice swans is gorgeous, but I had
to pick just one.)

The
enchantment on her little sister’s face, the childlike wonder as
delicate spirals flowered against the glass beneath her fingertip.

Where
had that all gone? Why had this curse turned so desperately dangerous
to all around her?

In
the center of her heart the young queen knew with awful certainty
that she wanted most of all to be warmly loved, and the grim face of
her icy powers had cut her off from that possibility forever.

What
use was living then, if one lived alone? Always isolated, not just by
the demure if chilly distance between passing family members… but
the bone-wrenching loneliness that comes from never feeling a human
touch again.

Winter
Queen

The
angel snorted. “What nonsense. You were a gift. Your life is a
gift, just as everyone’s is. Your origins were special, and
therefore you are different from others. But do not deceive yourself
into thinking that everyone else is all alike. That would be high
folly indeed. As each snowflake is unique, each sunrise, each
blossom, so are each of the children of men, and the differences they
carry hidden within are sometimes the harder to bear.”

Winter
Queen

Where
was truth? Where was honor? Where was the day that he could look any
face in the world full on and not have a single thing to flinch from?

Prince
of Demargen

“Never
send a snowman to do a man’s job!”

Prince
of Demargen

“Sir
Halvor the Braver than Brave!”

Prince
of Demargen

To
connect with Elizabeth Kaiser, here is a list of her social media
spots!

4 comments:

Thanks so much for featuring the Thaw: books, Kelsey! We really appreciate it! Also, I loved your favorite quote selections! We should do a Q&A sometime where you ask me all the questions you have of where I came up with certain scenes... that'd be a fun one! Thanks again! Elizabeth

You're most welcome! I'm glad you liked my quote choices. : ) It's fun to know what other people like about your writing!I love your idea of a Q&A. Let's keep that in mind!I really enjoyed doing this post for you!

You and I are of the same mind! : ) It was so hard to pick these quotes ... I kept on seeing lines that made me think, "Oh, that one is special!" but of course I couldn't include them all ... it'd be half the book! So yes, you simply read the whole books for yourself! : )

About Me

I am a disciple of Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah of Israel, and I strive to make His teachings the rule of my life. I love to write, mainly novels, and I am working to use that to glorify my Lord. I love to study the Bible, Israel, classic literature, history, classical music, martial arts, and lots of other subjects. There are so many things to do and learn!